12 October, 2005

Yesterday, when several of us TSRA members were discussing this, I said:

"I am not a fan of his, unless we (which more than likely we will) find out he received preferential treatment, we should use this to our advantage in future attempts at repealing onerous state and even feral legislation with him signing on, introducing, and twisting arms."

And, of course I knew he would get preferential treatment, but what has startled everyone is the fact that:

"McAllen Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Henley tossed out the case against Hinojosa just before his arraignment, a court procedure in which suspects are read their rights and allowed to hear charges against them. A suspect typically is booked into jail after arraignment."

No Chuy, you do not have a "license to carry a concealed weapon." What you have is a Texas Concealed Handgun License, and no where in the legislation does it allow CHL's to carry in the restricted area of an airport. I know my instructor, and every subsequent competent instructor I have sat in with, plainly specifies that it is a CHL- not a CWL. Further, if you thnk that CHL gets you a buy from prosecution, that only happens if you are some Lord Muckety Fuck-Up with political clout, such as yourself. And to prove my point, you should read the Texas laws since you were not in office, 1995, when it was passed and you just might not confuse the two next time.

However Chuy, a minor screw-up like you had is no big deal in this Paranoid's opinion, but what is, is the shit eating judge who tossed this during arraignment and you lying to everyone saying:

Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows damn good and well that if anyone, such as myself, had screwed up like you did, we would have spent at least the night in the graybar motel, and would not have had it tossed.

06 October, 2005

Scientists have recreated the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of the deadliest ever to emerge, to the alarm of many researchers who fear it presents a serious security risk.

Undisclosed quantities of the virus are being held in a high-security government laboratory in Atlanta, Georgia, after a nine-year effort to rebuild the agent that swept the globe in record time and claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million people.

The genetic sequence is also being made available to scientists online, a move which some fear adds a further risk of the virus being created in other labs.

The recreation was carried out in an attempt to understand what made the 1918 outbreak so devastating. Reporting in the journal Science, a team lead by Dr Jeffery Taubenberger at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland shows that the recreated virus is extremely effective. When injected into mice, it quickly took hold and they started to lose weight rapidly, shedding 13% of their original weight in just two days. Within six days, all mice injected with the virus had died.

In a comparison experiment, similar mice were injected with a contemporary strain of flu, and although the mice lost weight initially, they recovered. Tests revealed that the Spanish flu virus multiplied so rapidly that after four days, mice contained 39,000 times more flu virus than those injected with the more common strain of flu.

This certainly makes me wonder what is in the works, particularly with all of the news lately about the possible Avain Flu pandemic, does it not you?

Twice now, the president of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard (an ambitious Democrat), has thrown teary tantrums on "Meet the Press." Among his choice blubberings: "We've been abandoned by our own government! Bureaucracy has committed murder! Some people need to be strung up. They need to be burned at the stake!"

On national TV Broussard told a tragic story of a parish employee whose elderly mother drowned in a nursing home in a neighboring parish because federal help arrived too late.

"Just take a pause, Mr. President," a chastened Tim Russert was forced to respond, "while you gather yourself in your very emotional times. I understand."

The story was soon exposed as mostly phony by The New York Times, MSNBC and CNN (not exactly outposts of the vast right-wing conspiracy), among many other sources. The blogoshere was humming for days with accounts of the phoniness until the major media finally caught on.

Tragically, the poor man's mother did drown, but it had absolutely nothing to do with the tardiness of any federal rescuers. And it occurred five days earlier than Broussard claimed, which made it a wholly local evacuation matter. In fact, the nursing home owners are under arrest and charged with homicide for the deaths of the 34 patients who drowned.

Now, T.C. Hamm sent this link in Tuesday morning, and I am glad that he did, because here is what is news and very interesting news it is:

You'd never know it from the major media, but there are several hundred thousand people in Broussard's own Jefferson parish right now who, if they could get their hands on some torches and pitchforks, would storm Broussard's office faster than that mob of enraged villagers stormed Baron Von Frankenstein's castle.

These people have been rendered homeless by flooding, and they're not blaming the feds or even the state. They're blaming their Parish president, Aaron Broussard. If Tim Russert really wants some fireworks, he might invite some of these infuriated residents of Jefferson parish (who include my parents and dozens of lifelong friends) on his show.

Eastern Jefferson parish, the most highly populated area, which sits next to New Orleans, consists mostly of reclaimed marsh and swamp. A series of drainage canals criss-cross the parish. These end at huge pumping stations (18 of them, costing tens of millions of dollars) that pump out rainwater from the canals into adjacent Lake Pontchartrain to keep the parish from flooding.

This is necessary even during heavy rains, and sporadic flooding is common in portions of eastern Jefferson parish (I grew up there, I know) during torrential thunderstorms.

Well, all of the people hired to operate Jefferson parish's pumps were evacuated to a hundred miles north of New Orleans - on the orders of Aaron Broussard. Cops and firemen, naturally, stayed. Many sensible people consider these pump operators every bit as essential as cops and firemen during a major hurricane. (And you can hear their furious sputterings on all the local radio talk shows, Mr. Russert.)

The pumping stations themselves are huge, sturdy, blockhouse-type buildings. None sustained any major damage from the winds. In fact, I received some reports that area policemen, during the height of the hurricane, actually sought refuge inside a pumping station, recognizing it as the safest place around. Sure enough, they emerged completely unscathed, as was the expensive ? but completely idle ? pumping station.

Though no levees broke, damage in eastern Jefferson parish might reach $1 billion, mostly from flooding. If Tim Russert wants some genuine rage on his show, I know tens of thousands of people from Jefferson parish who might volunteer ? and with true stories.

Do you think that maybe, just maybe, all of Aaron Brousard's own waterworks was a calculated move to cover-up his own stupidities at destroying his parish. No, I did not think so either- he was after as much political hay as he could make blaming others when Tim Russert gave him the opportunity to read from his prepared notes which he held in his hands- looking down so often you could see him get his talking points (13.2MB WMV File) in order...

04 October, 2005

I called a friend of mine in Dallas and asked him if she is, and he burst out laughing.

He told me it was funny that I should ask, and that I was the first to do so, but yes, there are very old rumors that she is a Conservative Oaklawn Lesbian, but that nothing has ever been proven.

So, I do not know, and many will tell me that it is none of my business nor will it cloud her judgment, which I think maybe slightly true, but I have to laugh and laugh very, very hard if she is, as GWB will have sold another bill of goods to his conservative supporters who believe he walks on water and thus refuse to admit when he screws them...

03 October, 2005

I have a good friend whose birthday is today, and I also have a client who told me how old he is since it is his birthday too. Of course, I did ask him if they had dirt then, and he burst out laughing when I did so.

Now, I fully intended to wish the El Guapo a Happy Birthday, as I did last year, but this evening, when I was checking my visit stats, I ran across this search in my logs:people whose birthday is tuesday,october 4